North-Eastern (Kenya)

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North-Eastern
Western Rift Valley Nyanza Nairobi Central Eastern Coast North-Eastern Indischer Ozean Südsudan Somalia Tansania Äthiopien UgandaLocation of North-Eastern in Kenya
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Basic data
Capital Garissa
surface 126,186 km²
Residents 1,410,342 (official estimate 2008)
Population density 11 inhabitants per km²
ISO 3166-2 KE-500 (repealed)

North-Eastern ("Northeast") was a province of Kenya that bordered Ethiopia to the north and Somalia to the east . Their capital was Garissa . It largely corresponded to the former Northern Frontier District (NFD, "Northern Border District "). Most of the 1.4 million inhabitants were Somali . As part of the 2010 constitution , the Kenyan provinces were dissolved. The counties Garissa , Mandera and Wajir are located in the North-Eastern Province today .

population

The majority of the approximately 1.4 million inhabitants belonged to Kushite-speaking ethnic groups who traditionally live as nomads from raising cattle. The vast majority of them questioned the Muslim Somali that the clan families of the Darod and the Hawiye members. The western border of North-Eastern largely corresponded to the border between the Somali and Boran ( Oromo ) in Kenya, but there was also a minority of Borana and associated groups such as the Sakuye in North-Eastern . Since the outbreak of the civil war in Somalia in the early 1990s, Somali people from Somalia have also lived in the refugee camps near Dadaab .

The climate in the province was semi-arid and hot. Irregular rainfall with recurring droughts and floods posed problems and led to dependency on food aid .

history

From the 16th century onwards, as part of the Oromo expansion, the Boran advanced into the area between the River Tana - which forms the southern part of the western border of North-Eastern - and the Juba in what is now Somalia. They gained influence over the somaloid groups that inhabited this area.

In the 19th century Somali from the Darod clan , who advanced from the east, pushed the Boran back largely to the west of the Tana. The British colonial power of British East Africa saw this expansion of the Somali, which were considered hostile and warlike, as a threat and ended it around the turn of the 20th century.

When in London in 1961 the impending independence of the colony of Kenya was discussed, Somali representatives demanded that the north-east be connected to Somalia. A referendum showed that the Somali as well as the Oromo supported this by a majority. Nevertheless, the British colonial administration decided to leave the areas concerned with Kenya and to grant them limited autonomy within the country in a federalist system. However, after its independence in 1963, Kenya introduced a centralized form of government.

As a result, a guerrilla war began in which separatists fought for the separation of Kenya with support from Somalia. The government responded by imposing a state of emergency and extensive repression against the population. In 1967 Kenya and Somalia signed a peace agreement through Kenneth Kaunda , but the state of emergency lasted until 1991. As a result of this so-called " Shifta War ", parts of the population had to give up the nomadic way of life permanently.

Political situation

Since the outbreak of the Somali civil war , hundreds of thousands of Somalis have fled to refugee camps in North-Eastern, especially those near Dadaab . Kenya therefore fears that the conflicts will spread, especially since Islamists have gained in importance in Somalia. Since 2008 at the latest, members of the extremist al-Shabaab have been advancing unhindered to North-Eastern in order to recruit young Somalis from the refugee camps as well as native Somalis. Unemployed young men in particular are encouraged to go fighting in Somalia with bonuses of several hundred US dollars. The Kenyan government has also recruited young Somali people to support the Somali transitional government .

Administrative division

North-Eastern was divided into four districts:

District Capital
Garissa Garissa
Ijara Ijara
Wajir Wajir
Mandera Mandera

See also

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  • Günther Schlee : Identities on the move: clanship and pastoralism in northern Kenya , Manchester University Press 1989, ISBN 978-0-7190-3010-9
  • Günther Schlee: Interethnic Clan Identities among Cushitic-Speaking Pastoralists , in: Africa: Journal of the International African Institute , Vol. 55, No. 1 (1985), Edinburgh University Press
  1. ↑ bevölkerungsstatistik.de (2008)
  2. ^ Catherine Besteman: Unraveling Somalia - Race, Violence, and the Legacy of Slavery , University of Pennsylvania Press 1999, ISBN 978-0-8122-1688-2 : pp. 57f.
  3. ↑ a b Countrystudies.us: Somalia - Pan-Somalism
  4. ↑ Alex de Waal: Famine Crimes: Politics & the Disaster Relief Industry in Africa , ISBN 0-253-21158-1 (p. 41)
  5. ↑ Jeffrey Gettleman: Radical Islamists Slip Easily Into Kenya , in: New York Times, July 21, 2009.
  6. ↑ Jenny Cuffe: Jobless Kenyans admit fighting for al-Shabab , in: BBC World Service, January 6, 2010.
  7. ↑ Ilona Eveleens: Abdul and Ali, Krieger gegen Wille , in: taz.de, March 19, 2010

Coordinates: 1 ° 0 ′ 0 ″  N , 40 ° 50 ′ 0 ″  E